This quote is a great example of how to help friends and family with tech issues w/o pissing them off in the process: I've banished from my vocabulary in dealing with users the question: "what did you expect to happen?" (intoned inquisitively with stress on the word happen, not sarcastically with stress on the last syllable of expect). Because what the user hears when you ask that question is, "you disagree with the computer. The computer's right, you're wrong. So 'fess up on your idiocy, and I'll have a nice laugh with my techie friends later at your expense." Instead, I said to my friend, "oh, no! Still... I bet there are some people out there who really love their Project Runway reruns, and don't care for The Shield that much. How do you wish the TiVo had worked differently?"
Honestly, I think that is the best part of the article, much more important than the divide he discusses. When trying to explain why something works the way it does, say three things:
1) Some people might want it the way it works now.
2) How should the technology know you want it this way.
3) Show how the user can tell the technology what it wants.
